Role of pharmaco- and micronutrients in nutritional metabolic therapy of COVID-19 and other viral infections

Abstract

Malnutrition is an unfavorable background for the course and outcome of viral diseases, including COVID-19. In accordance with international recommendations, timely correction of nutritional status using oral, tube enteral and parenteral nutrition is a necessary and mandatory method of concomitant therapy for COVID-19. An analytical review of the results of studies on the clinical use of pharmacological nutrients (glutamine; vitamins A, C, D, E; zinc, selenium) for the prevention and treatment of viral infections, including COVID-19, was performed. According to the data of clinical studies carried out in 2019–2020, the use of glutamine and antioxidant micronutrients as part of nutritional metabolic therapy can reduce the severity of clinical symptoms and accelerate the recovery process of patients with the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 and other viral diseases. From a practical point of view, the only sources of glutamine for enteral administration registered in the Russian Federation are Glutamine Plus for oral enteral nutrition and Intestamin for enteral tube administration and Dipeptiven 20% for parenteral nutrition. The use of pharmacological nutritional therapy, in particular, enteral or parenteral glutamine as a component of clinical nutrition in patients with viral infections and nutritional deficiency or the risk of its development, helps to improve clinical results, reduce the severity of the disease and accelerate the rehabilitation process.